How important is attic insulation in your home?

The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) has an on going scheme of grants called Home Energy Saving Scheme (HES).This scheme would allocate Euro 250 if you retrofit your attic insulation, of course subject to their terms and conditions (standard in any such scheme). If you wonder why only Euro 250 for this work, it is because this is such a simple, low cost and easy bit of work which you can do for yourself if you are handy with similar work. Of course if you need to claim the grant you need to be prequalified and registered as a trained technician for the stipulated work, which unfortunately is a long, drawn out process. But you must not let the simplicity and the low cost of the matter undermine the importance of the issue.

In the developed world up to about 40 percent of a country’s energy usage is in residencies and there too the biggest chunk (50 - 70%) is spent for space heating or cooling. Interestingly the green house gas emission in generating this energy is in much excess over that emitted by all the vehicles on the road.

Attic insulation is one area where the heating energy consumed goes a begging. Simply, we do not consider energy wastage can occur there and plugging it is so simple. In many of the older houses the attic or loft is not insulated at all. Even where there is insulation the material may be inappropriate or not thick enough to provide the necessary "R" value to block the heat transmittance adequately. Incidentally the "R" value of a material is its ability to resist heat flow through. The higher the "R" value the lesser will be the heat flow.

There are many good insulation material in the market. Examples may be Rock wool, Fiberglass batt or blanket, Poly urethane board, Expanded or Extruded Polystyrene insulation etc. Of these one of the best, durable material which is easy to install in the attic is fiberglass wool insulation. A fiberglass insulation product (for example the well known Owens Corning Pink material) possesses a number of outstanding qualities such as:

• Made of up to 50% recycled material

• A range of thicknesses (158mm – 305 mm) where you can select the size you need for your application.ie to insulate anew or just top up the thickness s to make up your requirement.

• Preferred by home owners 7 :1 because it maintains it’s insulating property over time.

• Inorganic Fibreglas does not imbibe water. Proprietary Pink insulation therefore will not hold water there by preventing permanent deterioration of "R" value.

• When properly installed Pink Fibreglas insulation does not settle or deteriorate maintaining the "R" value.

• The insulating material is non-combustible.

• The "R"- value will be variable from 19 to 38 depending on your requirements and the thickness.

• Available barefaced or with Kraft paper faced. The profiles will be as pre cut batts or rolls. The batts are available with widths varying 380 mm to 610 mm.

Insulation retards the flow of thermal energy through it, in or out, so that the heating or air conditioning system does not have to run as much as necessary otherwise, thus reducing the energy consumed by it. The Fibreglas insulation contains a thick network of fibres that entraps millions of tiny air spaces within it. The insulation therefore does not provide an easy and quick path through it for the heat flow, from the warmer to the cooler side (which is the case with solid material like wood, brick, metal etc.).

The human civilization today is vulnerable to the issues of energy. The energy efficiency is critical in our social infrastructure may it be transport, Industry, indoor environment, construction, the development of renewable energy, recycling and environmental conservation. The various advancements, R &D and bold decision making in this regard have positioned the energy efficient insulation product industry at the vanguard.